Internal combustion engine



y 1 1934- F. SASS INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed June 25, 1928 IInventor Friedrich Sass, by LZZfi His Attorngz Patented July 10, 1934INTERNAL COLIBUSTION ENGINE Friedrich Sass, Charlottenbnrg, Germany,assignor, by mesne assignments, to General Electric Company, acorporation of New York Application June 25, 1 In Germany m, Serial No.288,046

July 9, 1927 2 Claims. (Cl. 123-42) The present invention relates tointernal combustion engines of the type in which the fuel 7 is injectedwithout the use of air, the fuel pump itself forcing the fuel oildirectly into the engine cylinder. Such engines are termed usually solidinjection engines.

In connection with such internal combustion engines it has been thepractice generally to provide only one fuel valve for each cylinder, the

'fuel valve being arranged with its fuel nomle located centrally in theaxis of the cylinder and being provided with a number of circumferentialorifices through which the fuel is sprayed. This arrangement issatisfactory in the case of small and medium cylinder diameters. Withthe advent of larger cylinder diameters, however, the difllculty is metwith that in order to distribute the fuel throughout the air in thecombustion chamber, the jets discharged from the nozzle orifices mustbecome increasingly longer. Otherwise, the area located at the outerperiphery of the cylinder is not charged with fuel and hence is noteffective for combustion, the result being that either the engine is notfully utilized or the combustion becomes imperfect and the fuelconsumption high. As a result of the foregoing, the size of cylinderwhich can be utilized with a single fuel valve having acentrally-arranged nozzle is-soon reached, and cannot be exceeded ifgood combustion and efficiency is to be obtained.

Ithasbeenproposedtoovercomethisdiillcul y by arranging several fuelvalves on each cylinder but this arrangement has not proved satisfactorysince the individual nozzles spray the fuel in all directions whichresults in lmeven distribution of the fuel in the combustion chamber andunfavorable operating conditions.

The obiect of the present invention is to provide an improvedconstruction and arrangement in an internal combustion engine of theabovereferred to type whereby the above difficulties are overcome, andfor a consideration of what I believe to be novel and my invention,attention is directed to the accompanying dmcription and the claimsappended thereto.

Inthedrawing,Flg.1isaverticalsectlonal view of the upper portion of onecylinder of an internal combustion ermine embodying the invention; Fig.2 is a sectional view taken on line 2-2,Fig. LandFig.3isasectionalviewtakenon line 3-3, Fig. 1.

According to the present invention, instead of utilizing only a singlefuel home for spraying the oil I provide a ring of nozzles or nozzleheads located concentrically to the axis of the cylinder and from whichthe fuel oil is sprayed outwardly; and in connection with thisarrangement I preferably so shape the wall within the confines of thering of nozzles and the adjacent portion of the piston head that whenthe piston is in its uppermost position, the clearance or space betweensuch walls is reduced to the lowest degree possible so that the quantityof air located in the space between the portion of the wall within thecon- 55 lines of the ring of nozzles or nozzle heads and the piston headbecomes reduced to a'minimum. Or, considered from another aspect, Iprovide in substance an annular combustion chamber into which the ringofnozzles sprays the fuel in a. generally radially outward direction.

By means of this arrangement, it is possible with the lengths of fueljets capable of being produced eflectively, to provide cylinderdiameters of any size up to the greatest dimensions, it being onlynecessary to select a diameter of nozzle ring corresponding to thecylinder diameter and length of jet.

Also, in connection with the foregoing arrangement, I provide preferablymeans whereby cooling medium may be circulated in the vicinity of thenos-ale heads. This serves to prevent drippins. and coking of any fueldripping at the nozzle outlets whereby there is effected a more perfectcombustion.

Referring to the drawing, wherein I have illustrated an embodiment ofthe invention, 1 indicates a cylinder of an internal combustion, 2indicates the cylinder head, and 3 indicates the piston. Arrangedcentrally of the cylinder head 90 is a fuel valve indicated generally bythe reference numeral 4. It comprises an inner wall 5 and an outer wall6 arranged in spaced concentrlc relation to each other to provideannular chamber 6, and a head 7. At the lower end of wall 5isavalveseatBuponwhichispresedthe fuel valve 9 by means of a suitable valve springstructure 10. 10 indicates the passage through v which fuel oil isforced by the fuel pump to the region adjacent to the valve seat. 1

Valve head 7 is of suitable diameter for thecylinderinwhichthefuelvalveistobeusedandisprovidedwitharingoffuelnomlesor heads 11 through which the fuel isdischarged to the combustion space. Each fuel nozzle head action ofspring 10, fuel oil is forced through the chamber 13 and the respectivepassages 12 to the nozzles or heads 11. In the embodiment shown in thedrawing the diameter of the ring of nozzle heads is of the order ofabout onethird of the inner diameter of the cylinder, that is, thediameter of the ring of nozzle heads is made large enough to permit thestreams of fuel discharged by the nozzle heads to penetrate the spacebetween the nozzle heads and the cylinder wall. The arrangement is suchthat the fuel is discharged from the nozzle heads in a substantiallyradial direction towards the cylinder walls.

Fuel valve head 7 is provided with a chamber 15 connected by passages 16with the annular chamber 6*. Annular chamber 6 is divided into two partsby vertical partition walls 16 as best shown in Fig. 3. Connected withone of the parts is a cooling medium supply pipe 17 and connected withthe other part is a cooling medium discharge pipe 18. With thisarrangement, it will be seen that a cooling medium, such as water, maybe admitted through pipe 17 and caused to flow through one-half of thechamber 6- to the chamber 15 and thence out through the other half ofthe chamber 6 to discharge pipe 18. The path of flow is indicated by thearrows in Fig. 1. By this arrangement it will be seen that coolingmedium is brought into immediate proximity to the fuel valve head 7 andserves to cool the same.

In order to decrease to a minimum the space between the surface of thepiston head and the surface of that portion of fuel valve head locatedinside the ring of nozzles, the piston is shaped as shown in Fig. 1 sothat when at the upper end of the compression stroke as shown in Fig. 1the clearance between the piston and the adjacent wall of the fuel valvehead is reduced to a minimum. From another viewpoint, the adjacentsurfaces of the wall of the fuel valve head and a portion of the pistonare in parallel relation to decrease to a minimum the space definedtherebetween when the piston is in its upper end position. Thearrangement serves in substance to provide an annular combustion chamber19 into which the fuel nozzles discharge the atomized fuel oil.

With the above described arrangement, it will be seen that with a givenlength of fuel oil spray I am enabled to use efliciently any desiredcylinder diameter, it being necessary only to arrange the nozzles ornozzle heads in a ring of suitable diameter. That is to say, it is onlynecessary to select a diameter of nozzle ring corresponding to thecylinder diameter and the length of jet or spray capable of beingefliciently produced.

, In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I havedescribed the principle of operation of my invention, together with theapparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof,but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is onlyillustrative and that the invention may be carried out by other means.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. In an internal combustion engine, a cylinder of considerable innerdiameter, ahead for the cylinder, a ring of nozzle heads for injectingfuel into the cylinder, said ring being of a diameter of the order of atleast one-third of the inner diameter of the cylinder to permit thestreams of fuel injected by the nozzle heads to penetrate the spacebetween the nozzle heads and the cylinder wall.

2. In an internal combustion engine, a cylinder of large inner diameter,a head for the cylinder, a fuel supply valve centrally arranged in thecylinder head and having a valve head of a diameter of the order ofone-third of the diameter of the cylinder, the valve head defining acentral chamber for receiving fuel and a ring of circumferentiallyspaced radial channels leading from the central chamber, and a nozzlehead fastened to the outer end of each channel.

FRIEDRICH SASS.

